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Easiest iPad video converter?

53x12

53x12

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Feb 16, 2009
1,544
4
What is the best program (that is also easy to use) to convert videos that fit the iPad size/format? iSquint is optimized for the iPod/iPhone screen, right? Anything for the iPad?
 
Do Handbreak or Video Monkey allow you to convert the video to the 1024x768 screen size of the iPad? Or will it be converted to the iPhone/iPod size and then stretched?
 
KittyKatta said:
Video Monkey
Click to expand...

I just downloaded Video Monkey and the only devices listed to convert to are:

-iPod
-iPhone
-iPod touch
-Apple TV 1
-Apple TV 2

So would you just convert it to the Apple TV since I don't see an option for the iPad specifically?
 
53x12 said:
Do Handbreak or Video Monkey allow you to convert the video to the 1024x768 screen size of the iPad? Or will it be converted to the iPhone/iPod size and then stretched?
Click to expand...

It's smart about it.

If you start with an HD video it will make it 1024x720, which fits the screen but with the proper ratio.

If you start with a smaller video (like, say, a 720x480 DVD) then it leaves it alone and makes a 720x480 file and lets the iPad re-size it. No reason to make it bigger...it'd just wast flash drive space.
 
Small White Car said:
It's smart about it.

If you start with an HD video it will make it 1024x720, which fits the screen but with the proper ratio.

If you start with a smaller video (like, say, a 720x480 DVD) then it leaves it alone and makes a 720x480 file and lets the iPad re-size it. No reason to make it bigger...it'd just wast flash drive space.
Click to expand...

So I'm going to sound like a geek here, but I want to clarify something.

Does it crop it to fit the screen? Or does it resize it? Because if it resizes it, then it'd go down from 1080p or 720p down to what we call 576p (1024x576) to preserve the 16:9 aspect ratio of the HD content (unless it's a HD movie that's even wider-screen). If it really crops down to 1024x720 then it's cropping off some of the content from the sides.
 
nightfly13 said:
So I'm going to sound like a geek here, but I want to clarify something.

Does it crop it to fit the screen? Or does it resize it? Because if it resizes it, then it'd go down from 1080p or 720p down to what we call 576p (1024x576) to preserve the 16:9 aspect ratio of the HD content (unless it's a HD movie that's even wider-screen). If it really crops down to 1024x720 then it's cropping off some of the content from the sides.
Click to expand...

Most of the video converters resize and maintain the original aspect ratio. Handbrake will allow you change the aspect ratio by cropping the sides (and/or top/bottom) but that's an extra step in the setup and not very straightforward.

The nice thing about the iPad is that it will crop the sides and fill the screen just by double tapping the screen. I just wish there was an intermediate setting so that a 2.35:1 widescreen movie could be cropped a bit to a 16:9 format, rather than the dramatic cropping needed to match the iPad's 4:3 format.
 
I really like handbrake with the default iPad preset. It takes about 20 minutes for me to convert a 40 minute standard definition video, on a Core 2 Duo macbook pro.

I've also tried Toast Titanium 11 a few days ago. It has some video boost feature that uses nvidia cuda to cut conversion times in half. 9400m isn't supported, but it worked as advertised with my 9600m gt. CPU conversion took 26 minutes with the standard iPad preset, and with video boost it took 13 minutes. But it made my mbp very very hot, with CPU and GPU touching 100 degrees C. And the file sizes were 50% larger than using handbrake, but the video did not look any better. Also the file that was done with video boost was nearly 100MB larger than the CPU only conversion for some reason.

So I'll continue to use handbrake with the iPad preset.
 
Quicktime will convert videos to iPad friendly formats.

Just open a video in Quicktime, then choose FILE>SAVE AS> and you'll see several options for formats/sizes based on the resolution of the original video.

If your original video is a high enough quality, you'll see options for iPhone, iPod, Apple TV, HD 480p, HD 720p.

Another option is to open a video in Quicktime, then choose SHARE> and it gives options for converting and importing to iTunes (although the Apple TV format takes a roughly 700mb AVI file and converts it to a whopping 4.5 GB file).
 
DVD conversions=Handbrake
Everything else=Air Video.

I convert everything to mp4/m4v(or other), so that everything can be watched on all my devices - Windows laptop, iOS mobile devices and Apple TV.
 
Would any of these apps automatically convert videos stored in different folders placing the new video in the source folder automatically (without having me to select each video manually).

ie Ipad syncs my photos just fine, but the videos I take with my camera are in .mpg format and the ipad doesn't sync those automatically to the photos app for some reason.. so I am looking for an app that will batch convert my videos and leave them in the original folder so that I can browse them in the photos app with the corresponding pictures.
 
ElysiumY2K said:
VLC app.

No need to convert, just drag and drop :D
Click to expand...

Yes, VLC and Oplayer app for iPad is great, you needn't convert anything, just drag the video into your iPad. But as I know some video formats just like Real media foramt and some high definition videos can not replay fluently. Maybe sometimes you still need to prepare a ipad video converter in case you can not go with stumble. I used Leawo Mac iPad Converter, nice tool, but not free. You can try it if you think it's interesting.;)
 
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